Dress Up Party – Pattern Review – Tessuti Alice Top

This post is part of Dress Up Party. For contest rules, full details, and schedule, please click here!
Today’s post is from Kelli of True Bias.

Hello everyone. This is Kelli from True Bias and I am so thrilled to be here at Sew Sweetness sharing my version of the Alice dress by Tessuti Fabrics with you.

As soon as the Alice top/dress was released I knew that I would be making a few versions. The shape is very reminiscent of the Mexican mumu type dresses that my mom used to wear in the 70s. Except they were cotton with lots of bright embroidery on them. I love those dresses and wanted to stay true to the feel of that, while updating it a bit.

The traditional, handwoven ikat fabric is from Michael Levine. I’m a bit in love with this fabric right now. I searched all over etsy and ebay for something similar, but this was my favorite. Also, a lot of the similar fabric that I found online was much stiffer and more suitable for home dec or purses. This fabric is soft and fairly plyable which I think makes it a bit more flattering too.

The navy dress fabric is a rayon challis from fabric.com. I knew that I needed a fabric that was not stiff at all because of the gathers. I love rayon challis because it is fairly easy to sew with yet still flowy and lightweight. Rayon challis does have the tendancy to wrinkle a lot, but I find that the weight of the dress keeps it looking pretty nice.

I decided to risk it and did not do a muslin of this beforehand. Instead any review I could find and learned that people generally found that one size down worked for them. I measured at an exact medium in the chest so I made a size small instead. It fits really well. The only fit issue that I have is that the armholes are a bit low. If I raise my arms you can see my bra. Next time I will raise the armholes by at least 1/2″.

The only change that I made to the dress was to shorten it by about 4 inches. I may have shortened it a little too much, but in the end I do prefer the shorter length with such a full shape. Otherwise I fear it would be too overwhelming on my short frame.

I have definite plans to make more versions of the Alice dress / top. I really want to play around with lace for the yoke and sleeves. In the end I am in love with my new dress and plan to wear it all of the time this summer.